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She rolls her eyes. “Okay, well. That seems like a little bit of a dramatic statement.”
“If this was the last ranch on earth, I still wouldn’t buy it. If there was a zombie invasion, I’d make sure that the zombies could have the ranch over you selling it?—”
“Clint!” She slaps her hand across my chest. “That’s plenty!”
“What, you want me to buy the ranch now? Nora, you have to pick one…”
Laughing, she cuts me off, her lips brushing against mine in a kiss. When she pulls back, I tuck her hair behind her ear. “I know you said you were falling in love with the other guys, and they said it, too,” I murmur.
She tenses. “Clint, you don’t have to say anything you don’t mean…”
“I don’t, Nora. I never say anything I don’t mean,” I say seriously.
Nora’s blinking up at me. My heart is in my throat. I feel like I’m standing on a ledge right now, teetering on the side of a canyon. What I’m about to say could change everything. Inside of me, the part that’s been guarded for so long winces.
Don’t say it. Don’t give her any reason to hurt you. Don’t…
Fuck it. Fuck that voice. I’m not worried about Nora doing something that would hurt me. I’m worried about doing something that would hurt her.
My fingers go under her chin, and I pull up her chin. “Nora Foster, I love you.”
There. Same as telling her about my mom—once the words are out of me, I feel better. Lighter. I continue. “I’m not just falling in love with you; I’m fully fucking in love with you. I think I fell for you when you tried to fight off my biggest stallion all by yourself, to save that old-ass gelding?—”
“Gunter is a great horse,” Nora interrupts.
“To save Gunter,” I correct, “who is a great horse. When you sat and screamed in my face. When you came to our house to tell us off.”
“You seem to have a thing for me when I yell at you,” she comments.
I laugh softly. “Apparently, I do.” Looking down at her, my face straightens. “I’m serious, Nora. I love you.”
“Clint… I love you, too.”
I shut my eyes. “You don’t have to say it if you don’t mean it.”
“I know,” she says.
I open my eyes. Nora leans up, scooting slightly so that our faces are even. “I love all three of you. And I love you, Clint. Come hell or high water. Nothing’s going to change that.”
When she presses her lips to mine this time, it’s more than just a kiss. It’s a promise.
And I’ll be damned if I ever break it.
Epilogue
NORA
“The fucking concert is going to scare the horses,” Clint growls from the corner of the barn.
I sigh, pinching the bridge of my nose. “Clint. For the last time, we’re moving all of the horses out to the farthest possible pasture.”
“Except for the girls and their foals.”
I look over to where Thunder and Joan are staring at us. Joan’s beautiful little chestnut filly prances, her coat getting suspiciously close to Storm’s roan, while Thunder flicks her ears back at anyone who passes by. Her colt, the sweet second-born twin, has his nose poked out over the side of the stall. The filly, just like her mama, does the same, but instead of getting a pet and a carrot from passersby, she delivers a bite instead.
Soon after everything settled down, we started calling her Lightning, because she’s easily as flashy of a bitch as Thunder is. Now that the foals are almost a year old, their personalities are coming out even more. It’s fun to watch them grow.
It’s even more fun to watch Clint get excited about them.
